Listen up, I found a soapbox, I feel like yelling.
I have been racking my brain trying to figure out a way to easily advise people on good eating habits. Some things are easy, like stay the hell away from fast food joints. Until they (or maybe I) open a drive through-all natural-mostly organic-fresh fast food operation, program yourself and your car to not stop for McCrap! I've said it before, but in case you forgot, if you take home a bag of fast food to your family, you might as well walk through the door and punch 'em all right in the belly. It's just as kind as the sack o' fat you brought home and actually better for them!
'But FV, haven't YOU fed your family fast food??'
Yea, OK, I have. Key word "have". If sinners can be saved and old houses can be restored and Michael Vick can play football again, can't you cut me some slack?? I preach about the perils of bad eating habits because I've been there! You don't ask a blind man for directions! I've seen the dark side of the mountain, it may taste good, but it'll kill you. Fast food is like a monkey's paw of nutrition. It promises speed, affordability and deliciousness, but it will only bring you misery in the end. And yea, sometimes 'out the end'!
So, listen up!
I thought I'd attack grocery store shopping first. If your are a hunter/gatherer and grow all your own food and have no need to shop in a grocery store, stop reading now. Please go start a blog so I can read how to do this. Go. Now. If not, read on.
As we enter any modern grocery store we can notice a format that is adhered to by almost all stores. There exists a perimeter wall full of fresh goods. First, usually, is produce. Then Bakery. Then Deli. Then maybe hot foods or a salad bar. Then meats. Then dairy. Then bread. These are the primary departments and they have a very important similarity. Everything that you can buy in these departments is perishable, meaning it can and will go bad, even under refrigeration. Isn't that fantastic? Yes! It is! See, this is my first rule of thumb for food shopping. Buy products that can and will go bad, spoil and leave stinky gelatinous messes in your kitchen!
'But, FV, I can't waste money on a bunch of food that will just go bad!'
Yea, your right. So, get yourself organized, leave work a minute early, put down the iPhone, turn the darn TV off and go to the store more often. Purchase meals, not supplies for a bomb shelter. Take the kids, teach them to count in the produce section. Take the spouse, pick out some dark chocolate and strawberries for when the kiddies hit the sack. Take a friend and laugh at the inappropriately dressed grandma in the dairy aisle. Go by yourself and ogle the hot deli clerk.
'But, FV, that takes so much time!'
Oh, for pete's sake!! Listen there's only three things you absolutely must do to stay alive. One, breath, it's free and effortless. Two, well, exactly, number 2, and I guess 1 too, also free. Three, EAT! So, you're telling me that one of the three most important things you have to do to stay alive is something you don't have time to do well. If you don't eat, then, you die and if you don't eat good, you may survive, just not very long or comfortably. This is so important. If you had the choice of breathing in dirty polluted air or fresh air and you had to take some time out of your day, each day, to get to that fresh air, I assure you, you would do it. Why can't eating be the same?
It can.
I'm not pushing you to go all natural and organic and break the bank. Just try shopping around the perimeter of the store. This path will yield the most whole food products. Generally the interior aisles are full of processed, preserved food that I wouldn't give my dog. Now, calm down, I said "generally". There are good and needed things in the aisles, you just have to be smart about what you buy. A lesson for another day.
Go and practice what you've learned grasshoppers!
FV